#I love herrah so much I put so much time into planning out her fighting style and weapon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nonuggetshere · 1 year

Note

How does lurien and monomon adjust to the rulers being exiled in usurper au? Most people portray lurien as devoted to the king; would he try to follow them? And is there resentment against herrah, since as she is a ruler of a neighboring kingdom, and politically powerful, she got off pretty Scot free as far as I can tell? Or is there a period of time where herrah (or deepnest) and hollow were fighting, or was he less bitter towards her since she wasn't loyal to pk like lurien, and just made a deal for her daughter. (Was monomon loyal to pk? Was she HIS archivist, or just a jellyfish that agreed to help pk?) Sorry for all the questions!

DON'T APOLOGISE, I LOVE QUESTIONS, I LIVE FOR PEOPLE ASKING ME STUFF ABOUT MY AUS

Lurien was the most loyal to Pale King, which means his treatment after his exile is the harshest. In this AU though we did add some more neighbouring tribes/kingdoms for good ol' political drama and Lurien is the youngest son of one of such tribes, which was very loyal to the Pale King. This puts Hollow in a bad place with them and while they'd love to tell Lurien to get the hell out of their kingdom, they know it's not their call to make so stripping him of his title and sending him back to his home will have to do.

It's a few days after the exile that anybody actually finds out about it so by that time the two are far away from Hallownest, so even if Lurien wanted to follow his former king he couldn't. He just returns to the same life as a noble that he led before being given the title of the watcher.

Monomon was loyal to Pale King as his archivist, but Hollow can't exactly strip her of her rank as she's the only archivist in Hallownest after she sent her apprentice Quirrel away. So for now they keep a very close eye on her but promised to help her find Quirrel and bring him back home. She doesn't exactly know how to feel about the sudden change in leadership but for now, the two remain civil with each other.

You're right that Herrah doesn't face any consequences for playing a role in their sealing. While Hollow is a little bit bitter about it, she wasn't loyal to their father in any way and she's the queen of another kingdom so not only do they not resent her as much they also know better than to start any shit with her and Deepnest. Especially at the beginning of their rule when all of Hallownest's former allies pull away from them. They're both wary of each other but keep it civil, mostly for Hornet's sake as she loves her big sibling and is ecstatic to have both of them back (and about the fact that Hollow can finally play with her).

Lurien, Monomon and Herrah are all close friends though so the two understand her unique position and don't hold any resentment for it.

Ultimately though, their grievances were with their father, not the three dreamers, so with time their relationships get better.

Hollow's and Lurien's relationship will forever be practically non-existent. Lurien never regains his title so the two practically never interact, but the times that they do they keep it polite and formal. Lurien did eventually apologise for his involvement in the plan, and while he still remains loyal to Pale King he also accepts Hollow's rule, so Hollow simply accepts his apology and doesn't pay him much mind after that.

Monomon and Hollow eventually develop a relationship of mutual respect and are just normal coworkers, and she's allowed to stay as the Hallownest's archivist even after Quirrel returns. While she was sceptical about their rule at first, she saw how hard they worked to ensure Hallownest's well-being and even how they took interest in her work, so she finally accepted them as the new monarch. Hollow also lets go of their anger with time, and allowing Monomon to remain as their kingdom's archivist was a big part of it. She of course also apologised for her involvement as a dreamer.

Hollow and Herrah eventually grow to be allies and then close friends, thanks to their relationship to Hornet and the fact they ended up interacting way more often (also thanks to the aforementioned little princess). She was wary of them as she didn't know what to make of their sudden and violent raise to power, she hadn't known them as a person and while she understood their reasoning she had no idea what kind of ruler they would be so she wanted to approach the situation on the side of caution. But not only was Hollow not some shifty, violent bastard, but they also always treated her and her kingdom with respect and like equals - even despite their status as a god. So she eventually warmed up to them and treated them with the same amount of respect. She even started being almost motherly to them, thanks in part to her own daughter being their sibling.

#asks #usurper au #I hope there aren't any typos and it all makes sense because I am NOT proof reading that

23 notes · View notes

lightrises · 3 years

Text

"Only in allowing her to pass..." — Hornet, The Radiance, and the means by which Hallownest turned its victims against each other

A quick note: I read Hollow Knight as an anti-colonialist text. As such I'll be touching on topics related to colonialism as it's depicted in the world of the game, and said analysis will reflect both a sympathetic take on The Radiance and a critique of The Pale King that won't pull its punches. If this sounds up your alley, hello and thank you for the read! Let us be sad about these bugs together.

———

So!! A while back I realized something about pre-canon that felt rather... "curious" is one way to put it, I think. To wit: for all the effort and scheming and determination The Pale King poured into trying to get rid of The Radiance, neither of his plans involved directly killing her.

Was that his long game? Well, sure, that seems clear enough. His tack changed from luring the moths away from their god and creator to a more literal form of incarceration once the infection became a factor, but at its core the end goal never really changed—The Pale King very sincerely wished to destroy Radiance via obsolescence. The Seer lends us foreshadowing to confirm as much:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from Hollow Knight, showing the Seer and Ghost in the Seer's alcove at the Resting Grounds. Across both screenshots, the Seer tells Ghost the following: "None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters." End description.]

(Which, by the way and given the context, talk about an extremely unsubtle allusion to cultural genocide huh!!! Whew.)

In any case, we're left with a whole bunch of machinations which build up to... well, two very roundabout attempts at committing deicide. That's kind of weird, all things considered! Why not just do the deed in one fell swoop and get it over with?

This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe the king was devoid of the means to instantly kill another higher being. Maybe his personal sense of scruples stopped him short of signing off on MURDER murder (although, y'know, the aforementioned genocide + eternal imprisonment = still cool and copasectic apparently!). Maybe the long drawn-out cruelty was the point. Maybe the idea of playing fuckign 4D chess with the circumstances was too delicious for him to pass up—that man did love to tinker and stick his claws where they sure as hell didn't belong—or maybe it was a little bit of All The Things. Who knows!!

But interrogating The Pale King's methodology on this count isn't what I'm here for, at least not really. The main reason I raise this question at all is that in her own way, Hornet did too.

"I'd urge you to take that harder path... "

See, going by The Pale King's actions and what The White Lady explicitly says, they both foresaw two outcomes wrt the infection: it can be allowed to spread, or it can be contained. At Teacher's Archives, Quirrel acknowledges the fact that Ghost is expected to do... something about this, but he doesn't elaborate on what HE thinks that's supposed to be apart from the obvious "Gotta bust into Black Egg Temple first". Hornet is the one person who presents to us—to Ghost—what's framed as a third option: confront and destroy the infection at its source.

And she doesn't bring it up like it's just another tactic for Ghost to consider, prim and indifferent to what they would do. She nudges them towards it, actively, up to the point where she throws herself into the fray against Hollow at a juncture that's uniquely dangerous to her and her alone just to make that option feasible.

Even when she's couching it in disclaimers that this is still Ghost's decision to make (and let's be fair, she's extremely not wrong about that lol), no one can pretend Hornet is unbiased. It's obvious in that buttoned-down Hornet kind of way that she is way the hell done with the increasingly tenuous stalemate that's kept Hallownest's desiccated corpse from collapsing in on itself. Personally it's hard for me not to read some Toriel Undertale-esque "My father was too entrenched in his own foolishness to pursue any course of action that would have DEFINITIVELY ended this" shade into her stance here, regardless of whether that's strictly true in canon.

And that bit—Hornet's hopes for an end to Hallownest's stasis, moreover her grim calculation of what needs to be done to get there—that's the bit I find super interesting but likewise tragic and depressing as shit, on multiple levels. In no small part because a) canon itself gestures towards Hornet feeling conflicted about the very plan she's pushing, and moreover b) she has at least two (2) damn good reasons to feel that way.

So, what do I mean by that? Let's look here first:

[Image description: A screenshot from Hollow Knight, of Hornet and Ghost inside the Temple of the Black Egg, standing in front of the unsealed egg itself. Hornet has been struck by the Dream Nail and her dialogue is displayed as follows: "... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?" End description.]

As the curtain is about to drop on things one way or another, Hornet thinks,

... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?

Now, looking at that last bit it's easy to go "Oh no, Hornet's worried that Ghost won't survive killing The Radiance!" And I do think that's part of it: Hornet is, categorically, not her father. By endgame it's clear she's not content to view her Void-borne siblings as tools to be used then disposed of. She's also well aware that as a healthy autonomous Vessel amongst the countless dead, Ghost is the only person left alive who has a fighting chance against The Radiance. Knowing someone is the only qualified candidate for the job doesn't make encouraging them to embrace a probable death sentence any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though. And odds are on that this sentiment extends to Hollow too, who IS going to die no matter what happens here. To put it bluntly, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Hornet hates the absolute fuck out of this.

But I don't think that's all there is to it either. Remember what I said earlier about The Pale King's bids for genocide? Well, it's not like the man deigned to limit his efforts to just the moth tribe.

"We do not choose our mothers... "

On top of everything else—an infected Hallownest being all she's ever known, the fact that she only exists because of the infection, the list goes on—Hornet has spent her life wedged into a position that's been uncomfortable and terminally unglamorous at best: she is both a daughter of her father's kingdom and of Deepnest.

Deepnest, which like the moths and many others was here long before the wyrm and his lady wife swanned onto the scene and the God Become Bug laid claim to everything the Light touched plus a considerable amount of change. THAT Deepnest, which has fought claw and thread to retain its sovereignty against same-said settler king, and for which Herrah not only surrendered her life but also agreed to bed her worst enemy, all in hopes of securing a viable future for her people (put a pin in that last part by the way, I'll come back to it soon).

Two Worlds, One Family (Ft. An Indigenous Woman Trying Her Damndest To Work With What She's Got Versus An Imperialist Who Only Signed Up For This Because He Needed The Political Favor THAT Badly, So It's The Height Of Dysfunctional Actually). Fun times!!!!

The baggage this entails for Hornet is gnarly enough without implications made by The White Lady and the pre-canon timeline of events and even Team Cherry's dev notes that the king may well have looked at baby Hornet, gone "YOINK", then ensured she spent the lion's share of her childhood reared within the pearly auspices of his Pale Court*. That would be rather advantageous for Him Specifically after all, the potential to mold a born foe into a future ally and even have her trained in combat under the same tutelage as her doomed sibling. And far be it from him to stop a grown Hornet—his own flesh and blood too!—from making Deepnest her forever home if she so pleased. He totally wouldn't be reneging on his "fair bargain made" by doing this one simple thing until Hornet came of age, not t e c h nic c a l l y.

If that is indeed the case, there's a non-zero chance Hornet's formative years were a hot mess of cultural alienation and being a good deal more privy than most to just how much of a bastard her father could be. There's an equally non-zero chance that at some point she stood or sat within earshot as The Pale King finally, finally dropped all pretense and euphemism to name the Light for precisely what (for who) it was.

See, in conjunction with the question that started this whole dang train of thought I've been asking this one too: Does Hornet know? When she speaks of confronting "the heart of [the] infection" does she know she's talking about not just a literal person but someone very specific? The Radiance, who god though she may be shares skin in the game alongside Hornet as a native woman screwed over by the same settler king, likewise deprived of her kin and saddled with a life gone horrendously pear-shaped?

I'll assume for the sake of exploring the possibility and because I think it's a likely one anyway that yes, Hornet does know. She knows, and despite everything can't help empathizing. She might even look at Radiance and see bits and pieces both reflected and slightly inversed in her own mother: Radiance was forced to the sidelines while her people—her children, the brood she was meant to lead and care for—died out under The Pale King's rule, and it's no stretch to assume she's at least as upset about that as she has been about everything else; Herrah too took drastic measures for her people's sake, trying to head off annihilation by relegating herself to the sidelines in an act that was as much calculated risk as an attempt to find wiggle room and leverage in the face of a nasty proposition.

A calculated risk that, if things continue as they are, might well amount to nothing as the rest of Deepnest gets eaten alive by the infection. It survived The Pale King's advances for so so long, only to fall here. Herrah's sacrifice would be for naught; the other tribes—themselves the king's victims—would keep succumbing to the infection too.

And this is where things fall apart.

"... or the circumstance into which we are born."

Let's be clear: I think Hornet is wise enough to know what's what here, that all the carnage and suffering falls on her father's head for starting this slow-motion trainwreck in the first place. Hallownest wasn't always Hallownest. This domain was Radiance's home first, along with many others. It was the worm-turned-king who rolled up on the scene unsolicited and decided this was a ""'problem""" that had to be """solved""".

But the fact of the matter is that he's gone and The Radiance is here, raging, seemingly inconsolable. Above and beyond being Deepnest's rightful heir, Hornet isn't in a position to countenance more splash damage even if the grief and fury fueling it makes perfect sense. She can understand without ever bringing herself to love Radiance, and she can bend her knee to practicality even if she hates the everloving shit out of it because the fact that it "has" to end this way isn't fair.

This lends itself to one last awful conclusion: that Hornet has probably considered and (rightly or wrongly) discarded the possibility that Radiance can be saved, at least not without dragging more collateral along for the ride. If even her mother and every other enemy to the king seemed to dismiss talking Radiance down as an option way back when... well. Why should Hornet hope for any better after things have escalated so far?

Again, it's practical. A practical net good is what Hornet strives for. And again, it fucking sucks.

For extra tragedy points, this makes Hornet's extended crypticness around Ghost followed by her last minute casting about for a reason to tell them "Wait, don't; not just yet" that she never voices even more of a gut punch. She can't bring herself to burden Ghost with the context that haunts her so, least of all when it might weaken their resolve to go through with what (she thinks) needs doing.

It's the "same song, different verse" which led to the mantis tribe and Deepnest being pitted against each other: Hallownest rigged the game so that two women who could have been powerful allies—who have a mutual vested interest in driving out settler rule—wound up poised as enemies instead. And how awful is that? The king for all his being extremely fucking dead still gets the last laugh, because outside of a miracle the game never manifests Hornet can salvage what her mother started and look forward to a future where Deepnest pulls itself back from the brink if and only if The Radiance dies.

Resolution comes at the price of a completed genocide. Add two more dead siblings to the unconscionable pile thereof, while we're at it. That's what it boils down to whether or not Hornet can bear to articulate it as such, and there's no grace or even a properly bittersweet ending to wring from this clusterfuck. And that is rough.

———

* This has been better explained elsewhere, but a quick rundown: The White Lady tells Ghost that Hornet and Herrah "were permitted little time together." On its surface this can be taken to mean that Hornet was still very young when Herrah was shipped off to Eternal Dreamland—except this doesn't jive with the fact that we meet Hornet as an adult. If the stasis kicked in once the Dreamers went to their rest, which in turn halted the aging process for every living bug in Hallownest, AND before all this Hornet experienced little by the way of quality time with her birth mother... I think you can see where I'm going with this.

To top it off we've got Team Cherry weighing in ominously from their dev notes on Herrah: "As part of the agreement for her alliance and her role as a dreamer, King gave her a child (Hornet). Was she allowed to keep this child or was she taken away?" This isn't confirmation by itself of course, but given additional canon details (see above): Can I get a "yikes" in the chat fellas.

#hollow knight #hornet (hollow knight)#hornet hollow knight #hk hornet #the radiance #hk radiance #herrah #hk herrah #hollow knight meta #sup folks it's been a minute since i dropped a whole dang essay but Here We Go!!!!!!

101 notes · View notes

buglife · 3 years

Note

Quirrel finally snaps. Royalty au. (He deserves it)

In Which Quirrel Has Enough :O

The morning started off just like any other. Waking up next to Ghost was always wonderful for Quirrel, especially in the big comfy nest gifted from Deepnest. It was like sinking into softness itself, something he and his spouse both appreciated, and there was plenty of room for cuddles. He yawned, stretching a little and turning to nuzzle his spouse to wake them.

“Morning, love.” He whispered, trying to gently wake them.

Usually they would be awake instantly and nuzzling back. Quirrel wasn’t sure if they actually slept now, having taken over the aspect of dreams. Even if they didn’t, they still made sure to be in bed every night to be with Quirrel, and stayed there until morning.

But today...they blearily blinked awake and didn’t nuzzle back right away. He instantly knew something was the matter.

“Dear, what is the matter? Are you alright?” He touched the side of their head and rubbed it in an effort to comfort them.

“Tired….” Came the soft quiet voice in the back of his head. Ghost had a measure of telepathy, but it was something they only did with friends and family. They tended to use sign language everywhere else, afraid of frightening their subjects. The Pale King had it as well, but used his to intimidate and issue orders. Ghost was doing everything in their power to be the complete opposite of their sire, even if it meant limiting their communication. Quirrel was trying his best to convince them otherwise, that their subjects loved them, but it’s taking a while to actually make Ghost believe it.

“You look tired. What where you doing last night?”

Ghost’s mental voice dissolved into a murmur of numbers and figures and laws hundreds of years old. The feeling Quirrel got along with it was an even measure of frustration, bafflement, and an extreme sense of mind numbing exhaustion.

“You were trying to rewrite the tax code last night, weren’t you?”

Ghost sank further into the pillows with a wheeze.

“You know I could have helped you, you silly thing.”

They sank further and didn’t look him in the eyes. He sighed and patted them gently, thinking about the situation to himself. For a long time, Ghost pretty much did everything, leaving Quirrel with the task of planning the rebuilding efforts once they took the throne officially. Ghost was the sole ruler, and the weight and pressure of that all had started to weigh down on them. Sure, they had their friends and allies to help them, but some things you just have to do yourself. Now that he was a king himself (something he still had trouble believing some days until he looks at the ring on his finger), he felt like he needed to do more to help his partner.

“Today, you are going to take the day off.”

They turned their head to look at Quirrel, a look of mild panic on their blank mask. Before they could ‘say’ anything, Quirrel beat them to the punch.

“Look at yourself dear. You are beyond exhausted. You haven’t had anytime for yourself in so long, you need a break. I’m your spouse, your equal now, let me help you take some of the load off yourself, please?”

“But...court? The new code…” They were too tired to properly argue, but Quirrel could feel their worry leak through their words.

“I can do them for once. It can’t be harder than what I usually do.” He thought of his duties, how much traveling he does to other parts of the kingdom to keep up good relations with their neighbors. Some ambassadors were pricks, to be frank. They seemed to enjoy trying to get a rise out of the Scholar King, but Quirrel used his wit to go toe to toe with them. It was fencing, but with words, a subtle dance where each tried to pick out weaknesses and use them to their advantage. Talking to the actual rulers though, was a lot more pleasant. In fact, he’s due to have a meeting with Herrah soon. Hornet would demand he spar with her, but she at least was completely honest with her desires. He thinks Herrah gets a kick out of watching her daughter beat the hell out of a King. She was at least kind enough afterwards to patch up his wounds.

Surely, sitting in a building and talking to the public won’t be that harder than having to actually fight someone every-time he needs to do his job.

Ghost gave them an incredulous look, and then sighed and nodded.

“Excellent, shall I make a pillow fort for you?”

They nodded excitedly, and Quirrel took all the extra pillows from the cabinets to add to the pile. After some time stacking and slinging blankets around, he had made a pillow fort that passed his personal inspection. Ghost retreated inside, and then promptly fell asleep, which vindicated his feeling that Ghost was too damn tired to do anything today. He made sure to put a note on the door for people not to disturb them and made his way through the palace.

It was not the White Palace, that one never came back from the realm of dreams. Ghost had told him that it was for the best, as no sane ruler would have that many buzzsaws. Quirrel inclined to believe them and not ask further questions. Instead, a new one was built, and it couldn’t quite consider it a ‘palace’. It was more of a government building and a place to house the knights of the kingdom. It was a hell of a lot more modest than the White Palace, but it was still nice. The citizens insisted after all and Ghost did not say no to them.

Quirrel would have to admit that the top floor where they both lived was really nice. Their friends and family had gotten their own rooms too, for them to live in or just stay in when visiting. Once Ghost had gotten their deserved family, they refused to be apart from them and was more than happy to have visitors around.

Quirrel made his way down to the ground floor, where court was held. It was just a simple room, decorated in shell wood and tapestries to give it a more calm feeling. A part of the room was dedicated to chairs and benches where petitioners could sit and wait their turn. There was a section where the workers would sit, such as the recorder and paperwork keeper, and next to that, was the thrones, sitting a bit higher than everyone else. Quirrel wasn’t too sure if it was required or not to have the thrones elevated, but just shrugged and went along with it.

Usually Ghost held court with at least two of the new knights of Hallownest keeping guard. In reality, Ghost really didn’t need guarding, but they appreciated some wranglers to deal with the public and the emotional support. It seemed today it was Tiso and Cloth.

“Heya Quirrel.” Tiso gave Quirrel a funny look. “Where’s the Squib?”

“I made them take a day off. They are in their pillow fort at the moment, resting.” He internally snickered. Tiso never stopped calling Ghost ‘Squib’, which would cause nobles to have a conniption whenever they heard it. If they complained, Tiso invoked ‘big brother rights’ and that was that.

“Good, they work too hard.” Cloth adjusted her club over her shoulder. “So you’re holding court today? By yourself?”

Quirrel nodded. “It shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, I will have to do it sooner or later. Why not now?”

Tiso and Cloth shared a look. They looked...apprehensive.

“Just be prepared, you get a mixed bag of people. Some are rather um…”

“Super fucking stupid. And spoiled.” Tiso finished for Cloth, gesturing to the still closed doors.

“They can’t be that stupid!” Quirrel took his seat on his throne (which is still completely unbelievable to him). There were two, the other was for Ghost, built side by side. There used to be just one, but well, now there was a need for two. At least they were comfy. For a moment he did want Ghost to be here by his side, but he was firm in the believe that his poor spouse was in dire need of a break. So, he will endure.

“They can and they are. Don’t get me wrong, most folks that come in are really nice, but you get a few every-time that cause trouble. We’ll be here to help you out, no worry.” Cloth gently patted Quirrel on the head. Cloth the Strong was the title given to her after she was knighted, and he was glad to have her here.

“Yeah if you want us to throw them out the windows, just say so.” Tiso of course, didn’t give too fucks. They couldn’t call him Tiso the Ant Who Doesn’t Give Two Fucks, so instead he became Tiso the Daring.

“Thanks guys.” Quirrel felt a little emboldened by the support of his friends. “Go ahead and open the doors, we’ll get set up and I think we can start court for the day.” Tiso flashed a thumbs up, opening the doors to let the various workers of the court come in to take their positions. Once settled, he nodded, and the first petitioner was called in. Quirrel sat up straight, making himself as approachable as he possibly could. He was a pillbug after all, they are usually considered cute, so it wasn’t like he had to try hard.

He smiled at the beetle who walked in and stood before him.

“Hello there, my friend, what can the court do for you today?”

The beetle took a breath before speaking. “I’m petitioning the court to ban nails entirely.”

Quirrel boggled as his brain ground to a halt, did he really hear what he just heard? It took him a moment for him to be able to speak properly.

“Ma’am, we use nails to protect the people and for individuals to defend themselves. Why in the world do you want to ban nails?”

She tutted “Well my little Perler keeps trying to pick up other people’s nails and he could get hurt! It’s dangerous to have those around anyone, let alone children!”

“Well then, if we do ban nails, how else would you expect the royal guard to defend you from threats? How do you expect travelers to protect themselves when alone? How do you expect the average citizen to defend themselves should they be attacked?” Quirrel tried to use logic, but to no avail.

She looked Quirrel straight in the eyes. “That’s for you to figure out, right?”

Quirrel sighed.

---

It was official, he wanted to be anywhere but here. He kept glancing at the ornamental hourglass in the hall, watching the grains of sand fall one single piece at a time. It was like the sand wasn’t draining at all, that he was trapped in this one moment forever. This was officially torture.

Sure, a few legitimate bugs came in with reasonable requests. Asking for information to form a legal town militia? Sure go down the hall and to the left and there’s a bug to help you with that. Asking for funds to renovate an empty building for printmaking? That’s reasonable, we need all the books we can get. Asking for a possible sliding scale tax model for citizens based on income? Thank you for that idea, we will look into it when we can. Hell, some little kid somehow managed to make their way inside and asked Quirrel if he could make it illegal to deny dessert. He said he’d discuss it with his spouse but most likely they’d agree to make it a law. The kid left, skipping in glee and Quirrel felt himself smiling. He mused a bit of a possible ‘kids only’ court session just so they all can hear whatever these kids could come up with. It would be a welcome break, maybe a holiday? He’ll talk to Ghost later about it.

However, for every reasonable bug, came three that was dumber than a bag of hammers.

“I propose a tax cut for my business because making gold plated luxury monocles are essential to society.”

“Those Deepnest beast-folk are poisoning our society and corrupting our children! I request that they be deported entirely!”

“I’d like to propose a debate on lowering the age of consent.” (Quirrel had that one hauled off by the guard for questioning).

“I want this book banned because the author argued against the noble class and it hurt my feelings.”

On and on, it steadily got worse as the more opulent members of society came out to air their ‘concerns’. He had started to just dismiss them when they came at him with ridiculous requests, only prompting them to start whining. And boy, could they whine. He could feel his antenna vibrate under his hood with the shrill pitch of entitlement. He did his best to be polite, to gently let these people down. But they just kept coming, and coming.

When the next noble asked for him to tear down the local children’s playground because he wanted to build a second business there, Quirrel snapped.

“ENOUGH!”

He stood up from his throne, staring down at the weevil before him.

“No, I will not tear down a source of enrichment and enjoyment for our citizen’s children to satisfy your selfish desires!” Quirrel’s words were tense as he hissed them through clenched mandibles.

The weevil, that before was so bold, now cowered. Quirrel was someone who was rare to anger, that had a sense of calm and warmth that made most folks comfortable. But here, he had a dangerous aura about him, eyes glinting with chaos and the sense that he probably caused some destruction on purpose before. Here was a scientist, raised by Monomon the Teacher, a being known for her inability to take shit and being able to dish it back twice as bad. That was a terrible mix indeed.

Tiso and Cloth looked at each other, and then stepped back. Quirrel will let them know if he needs them, and they want to see what goes down.

“I want everyone, who’s court petition would only benefit themselves, to leave. This is not a place to fulfill your want for power and riches. This is a place to hear the concerns to the citizen and to help them with said concerns. This is a place for anyone, rich or poor, big or small, to bring awareness to how we, the court, can care for them.”

He glanced down at the weevil who was still cowering, and narrowed his eyes.

The weevil, had a smidgen of bravery to comment. “Okay, my liege, we can just come back later and ask Sov-”

“You will NOT, bother my spouse with your wretched and idiotic statements!” Oh, he was angry now. Children being told no asks another parent for a different answer, but not an adult. He could scarcely believe it. He has seen selfishness before, but not to this degree. “ESPECIALLY since you think you are above the happiness and joy of all the children in the city! And let me tell you, if you asked my spouse that question, you’d earn yourself a stint in the dungeon to rethink your priorities. They love children a hell of a lot more than arrogant pricks like you. Now get the hell out of my sight!”

The weevil booked it, a sizable portion of nobles scurrying after. It didn’t take long for the room to nearly clear out completely, leaving only a handful of bugs. As Quirrel took a deep breath to calm down, a spike of fear shot through his heart. He had lost his cool, here, in front of his subjects. Were they going to be afraid of him? Would they be afraid to come to court now and bring up legitimate problems?

He took a second look to see that most of them were in various fits of laughter.

He sighed in relief and slumped back in his throne.

Tiso leaned down to whisper “Nice one, nerd, I think you scared them off for a while.”

“Here’s hoping.” Quirrel sighed in return and rubbed his eyes. Once composed, he sat up again, and called the next petitioner to him with a smile.

“How can I help you, my friend?”

“Yeah um.” The ladybug looked back at the door where the group of nobles had fled. He recognized her to actually be one of the nobles that had stayed. “I propose a request to strip nobles of their titles should they prove that they do not have the best interests of the citizens in mind.”

Quirrel grinned. “You know what, that is a fine idea!”

---

Being a king was exhausting. Quirrel barely dragged himself up to his bedroom, the day had turned to night and finally, all the work was done. All he wanted to do was not have to think at all for the rest of the night. How the hell did Ghost manage this every day? Especially before when it was just them doing most of everything? Quirrel now had a better appreciation for what his spouse does, and is still determined to lighten their load and share the burden equally.

He barely made it in the room before he was snatched up by Ghost, who was instantly purring and nuzzling his face. “Ah! Ghost!” He couldn’t help but laugh, feeling a little better as the love of his spouse seeped into him. It was wonderful. “Hello to you too, my darling.”

Ghost chuffed and gave one last head bonk, and carried him to the still stable pillow fort. They crawled inside, dragging them within where a few lumaflies fluttered about to provide light. It was warm and cozy, and Quirrel sank into their arms with a sigh. Ghost snuggled up, making them comfortable in their little nest. “Today was...interesting.”

Ghost touched their mask to his and felt the quiet voice in the back of his head. “Yes. Tiso told me when his shift ended.”

Quirrel groaned. “Did he now?”

Ghost nuzzled him affectionately. “He told me you handled court splendidly.”

“I don’t know, I lost my cool. I should have been able to deal with it all like an adult, not by loosing my temper like a child.”

“Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.” Ghost leaned back, pulling Quirrel down with them so they can sink into the various pillows. “I am also sure you have just endeared yourself to our subjects doing that.”

“Are they always that bad?” He asked, sighing. He snuggled up to Ghost, who rested their head on his. “The nobles?”

“Yes. But that just gives us some...amusement.”

“Amusement? I felt like someone was digging into my brain with a pickaxe!”

“Think about it. The opportunity for pranks. Like how father and your mother took them out during the coronation ball. It was splendid.” They chirped softly in laughter. Quirrel couldn't help but smile at that. Indeed, that was absolutely hilarious. Especially when Oro punted those stuck nobles out of the door and sent them flying. He could deal with a bit of a headache here and there to see that sort of thing again.

“You know what?” He said, grabbing a blanket and pulling it up around the both of them. Ghost sighed sleepily and Quirrel knew he won’t be far behind.

“What?”

“I could get used to this.”

Ghost was both delighted, and terrified.

59 notes · View notes

feralcoffeebug · 3 years

Text

Hello everyone I am here with my info about the merbug au! If there’s any questions about things about it just send in an ask!!

The infection was something predating both the Radiance and the pale king. It was something that would cover a bug in a glow orange in the dark thing, making spots of said bug glow orange in the darker caverns of the ocean. The infection is actually a creature that if you become friends with it it will listen to you and let you command it

The people that were suffering with their people getting infected took a substance and created a nonmortal but not immortal mers called Void Entities. It was unknown by any of the public about how they were made, only those working on the project truly knew what the substance was to make these creatures.

They were still feral however and tended to kill whoever came close to feed, it was unlike the infected mermaids that would just kill you just to kill you.

These new immortal mermaids soon died out due to being trapped in a cave system below. All except one died off. This remaining one is called the Shade Lord by historians and those who braved the depths and came back alive. Those rare few that survived lost almost all memories but only knew of that name and a long and rich black mer.

Soon enough things seemed to die down in the oceans waters.

Two factions moved in close corners, the Radiance and The Pale King. They both had very difficult ways of leading their group but were mostly unconcerned about the other. The Radiance’s faction lived in the deep caves lit up by sea lights they found on ships and around the water named the Dreamy Depths.

Hornet came about because Pale and Herrah were together before Pale started dealing with Radiance. Pale and Herrah were in a relationship for a little, then separated because too much fighting and Hornet ended up becoming a joint custody child. But when the caves became too dangerous for a child Herrah left Hornet to her dad. Hornet is older than her half-siblings (the voidmers)

Nothing much happened between the Pale King and The Radiance. That was until The Radiance started to study the infection. The Infection, being a hivemind like creature, made it so the Radiance could befriend it to use it.Soon enough she mastered how to use it for good for her faction but how to use it against those who made her upset.

At this point Pale was terrified that her sights would come to going against his own people. With no other ideas he turned to the ancient texts. There he found information about the Void Entities and a Goddess only known as the White Lady.

Needing someone who knew of the void entities would help, plus an immortal being was needed, Pale set out looking for the White Lady.

He needed her to make the voidmers because he needed a mortal's dna(his own) and an immortal’s dna (wls) to make them. She agreed to the plan and while working together they grew feelings for eachother.

He eventually started his experiments to temper down the feral behavior of the Entities. He eventually made something called the Voidmers (Vessels). He made a lot of them, some died dur to complications of being hybrids, some survived. The ones that survived were Moth, Kin, Ghost, and Pure. Moth ended up getting lost in the caves and got killed off.

Pale soon realized that the threat of the voidmers might not get Radiance not to go after his bugs. At this point she hadn’t been going after Pale’s faction. Xero got too close to the creature and it attached itself to him.

And so he took Pure and trained them to be able to fight others. However, instead of succeeding, Pure failed and got captured instead. With the Voidmer’s immunity to infection, the Radiance started working on a way to get past it. These experiments only slightly worked and it took a lot of time to do and it is rather difficult. Around this time is when Kin got too close to the caves and got captured.

Lost Kin is one of the few voidmers who wandered too close to the caves and got nabbed. They got nabbed and were one of the failed experiments by Radiance. They were too chaotic in how much control they had and often it was a 50-50 chance it would be them in control or the infection.

With Pure infected, the Radiance could use them as a sort of guard dog. They are bigger then most other mer. They are known for protecting the lower layers of the caves. The few bugs that have survived their hunting calls them The Beast That Lurks. No one goes down into the lower caves because they don’t wanna die.

A few years go by and a little voidmer that goes by ghost ends up wanting to know what happened and why they weren’t allowed to go down below. During these few years in between, Pale disappears.

They end up diving into the caves, shortly followed by their bigger half sister Hornet, who doesn’t know them too well but also knows that she’ll get in trouble if they get hurt. Ghost ends up not noticing her and ends up losing here. Eventually in a grassy place she jumps out and goes “you’re going home!” And ghost kinda just goes “no” and so they fight and Ghost wins before swimming off.

They meet Quirrel, another adventure. Tiso, someone who heard of the way your name goes down into history if you find something out and wants that glory.

They meet myla, who honestly just works there but likes ghost and helps them out from time to time, until one day she gets infected and attacks them

The infection can be healed and scraped off as well to help with healing, she’ll just need medical help before it takes her over and kills her completely

The infection works by covering a merbug in a thin layer of bioluminescent orange. This stage is where aggression starts due to chemicals the infection has. Then, if not treated, it will start to clump at the gills, bringing down oxygen intake, eventually it’ll slowly kill the mer without them noticing because it does this slowly. Eventually the bug seems to lay down to rest and they die completely in their sleep.

Eventually, they get the help from some of the people working on studying things down below. Lurien, someone who studies the infection, monomon, who works with it in a daily basis, and Herrah, a beast of the deep who knows how to avoid the Beast that Lurks.

Lurien and Monomon were easy to find and talk to, Herrah actually saves Ghost from being spotted by the Lurker (nickname for THK)

Pure’s job is to seek out anyone who was not a part of the Radiance’s faction down there. They know what they are doing but don’t agree with it and can’t control their own body. They’re body is being controlled by the infection but it can’t kill them due to their immunity.

They are called the Beast the Lurks by the mers down there because it’s silent, the only thing you see is glowing orange before it attempt to grab you and kill you

Ghost actually gets into the place where The Radiance is because Pure grabbed them, was about to kill them. But the fact that Pure, upon seeing their sibling, fights the infection harder and regains control for a moment and lets them go before Hornet jumps in and ties them up for a moment for Ghost to get into there.

However before this they met Shade Lord, who promised to help them after negotiations and gave Ghost some tools to get past the infection without it affecting them so much. So after they take over the Radiance, the Shade Lord begins to attempt to help Pure get rid of the infection from their system. They still need some extra help because it hurt them a lot and it was eating away at their shell and scales. Plus blunt force trauma from running into walls.

Unn is a slug ^^ she and Radiance were good friends until she went into the research about the infection before they finally separated. Unn honestly just kinda vibes on the sea floor with advice about how to deal with Radiance that may or may not be helpful

Grimm and Radiance are twins, however instead of staying in one place he travels a lot and has a few friends he travels with and puts on shows with. He mostly traveled back to see what was going on and Grimmchild (who is getting a dif name) wanted to go with Ghost to explore and Grimm went “ok, keep them safe little fish or else.”

Grimm isn’t a responsible parent but he is a good parent at the same time. Grimm or one of his group sometimes pops in and gets Ghost out of a tough situation. The troupe also always have a warm place for Ghost to sit and rest for a while and have a good meal.

Cloth is a shy and clumsy mer who was bullied for being too cowardly, so she wanted to prove she wasn’t a coward by going into the Dreamy Depths. She meets another merbug down there. They spend a lot of time together and the merbug tells her that it’s okay to be scared of things. Cloth ends up staying with her, until she gets infected and tells cloth to go before she gets attacked by her. So cloth leaves her behind. The love ends up dying. Cloth stays alive though, helps ghost out and while helping ghost she meets Myla. Myla and her hit it off and so she stays with her. When Myla gets infected she refuses to leave but does make sure she’ll be safe from getting killed. Cloth is one of the reasons Myla gets better.

#long post #merbug au #hollow knight au #hollow knight

10 notes · View notes

suolainensilakka · 4 years

Note

shade, quirrel, hornet

Shade: did you make many mistakes in your first playthrough? Do you regret any choices you made?

Hooh boy. Yeah

I was flying blind for the most part so I did accidentally fuck up some possible npc dialogue interactions by doing things in a slightly weird order and found out later when scouring through the wiki, namely hornet's bonus dialogue when you defeat herrah after getting the king's brand hsgdjsjd

But. BUT. The thing I regret the MOST about my whole entire playthrough is accidentally locking all future quirrel encounters by talking to him near the teacher's archives. I only had the deepnest hot springs hangout left and I would have gotten them all but I was a dumbass who decided to explore the fog canyon without originally even planning to and I FUCKED UP IM SORRY QUIRRELLLL COME BAAAAAACK

Quirrel: What was your favorite thing to discover for the first time?

Oh!! Oh!! Good Question! I unfortunately did get spoiled for a few things before I started playing the game myself, but one moment is gonna stick out to me for a good long while I think; Joni's Repose.

I was vaguely aware of a location existing in the game by that name where you could find a new charm, but it still came as a complete surprise for me! Honestly the entire howling cliffs area was a very pleasant surprise and I could not stop the constant feeling of "woah where the fuck am I" as I was exploring gdjfksjd

But! Joni's repose yes. Ok so I found a little hidden nook in the cliffs so I decided to go and explore, and THEN: butterflies. Blue lifeblood butterflies, which I recognized immediately - I followed the trail down, down, down, expecting to find a cocoon - and lo and behold, I accidentally stumbled right upon a small glade tucked away in the caverns completely filled with soft glowing blue and ambient music like no other, and I was mesmerized. I'm pretty sure that after getting the charm I just sat in that little hidden cavern for a full 15 minutes not even doing anything, just stopping for a moment and chilling in the atmosphere. I still dont know why that specific location stuck out to me so much, but it still gives me those very specific vibes that always make me just,,,,, stop, and sit back for a while. Like I said, I was mesmerized hshfjshd

Hornet: What is your favorite boss fight? Most difficult boss?

Ooooohhhh boy thats a tough one

I havent fought all bosses yet so I cant provide a definite answer, but there were a lot of fights I enjoyed!! (Enjoyed being a relative term since every single one of them kicked my ass WITHOUT mercy lmao)

But! A few bosses that I think had a really fun pattern and a pleasant challenge were the False Knight, Hornet round 1, the Mantis Lords aaaand the Dung Defender!! DD and the Lords kicked my ass the hardest I think, but the Lords had a very nice vibe with their entire battle. Challenging the three sisters for a honorable battle to gain the respect of the mantis tribe,,,,, MUAH, exquisite

And dung defender's up there purely because despite me loathing every single aspect of the royal waterways as a location I absolutely ADORED his fight, he sounded like he was having so much fun just jumping around and I love how when you stun him he just laughs gshdbnshd

He's having a good time. Yes he killed me twice but I could NOT stay mad at him if I tried, his entire fight just instantly put me into a good mood as well even though he's a pretty darn tough boss

Oh and I just realized I completely forgot to reply to the "hardest boss" part huh.

HORNET SENTINEL. FFUCKING HORNET SENTINEL OH MY GOD I STILL HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW I MANAGED TO BEAT HER I BARELY EVEN REMEMBER THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE I WAS SO FUCKED UP FROM ADRENALINE AND PURE UNFILTERED PANIC

OH and also Grimm I guess but I cheesed the entire fight by abyss shrieking the dude's ass all the way to hell lmao

#saltfish replies #avdol #hollow knight ask meme #this got. Long. apologies gshdjsjd

3 notes · View notes